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Articles on General Relativity

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A team effort: Dr David Reitze, of the LIGO Laboratory at Caltech, shows the merging of two black holes that led to the detection of gravitational waves. REUTERS/Gary Cameron

Australia’s part in the global effort to discover gravitational waves

The discovery of gravitational waves involved a team of more than 1,000 scientists from across the globe, including Australia. So how does such an international collaboration work?
Wes Mountain/The Conversation

Timeline: the history of gravity

It’s taken centuries for our understanding of gravity to evolve to where it is today, culminating in the discovery of gravitational waves, as predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago.
Computer simulation of two merging black holes producing gravitational waves. Werner Benger.

Explainer: what are gravitational waves?

If you understand how a trampoline works, you’ll be able to understand what gravitational waves are.
2015 saw us complete our exploration of all nine planets (including dwarf planet Pluto) in our solar system. NASA

2015, the year that was: Science + Technology

2015 was a year where we expanded our view of the universe, embraced new technologies and got a hint of the profound changes to come.
General relativity isn’t only a powerfully descriptive theory, but there’s a beauty in its elegance.

The art and beauty of general relativity

Einstein’s theory of general relativity is a triumph of reason and imagination, of art and science, with a profound beauty of its own.
You can feel the weight of an object on Earth because of its mass. But what is mass? Flickr/Jeremy Brooks

Explainer: what is mass?

We talk about mass all the time but what is it that actually gives an object mass? And why do some things have mass and others have no mass at all?
Dark matter is notoriously hard to detect, but a new experiment might finally shed light on this mysterious substance. Dirk Dallas/Flickr

How we plan to bring dark matter to light

A new detector built deep underground in a gold mine will hopefully unravel the mystery of dark matter.
The dispute between Philipp Lenard and Albert Einstein sheds considerable light on the power of nonscientific concerns to sway scientists. NASA via Wikimedia Commons

When science gets ugly – the story of Philipp Lenard and Albert Einstein

Scientists are not always as scientific as many suppose. Recent well-publicized cases of scientific fraud prove that scientists can be as susceptible to the allures of wealth, power and fame as politicians…
Doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work. andertoons

How to test the twin paradox without using a spaceship

Forget about anti-ageing creams and hair treatments. If you want to stay young, get a fast spaceship. That is what Einstein’s Theory of Relativity predicted a century ago, and it is commonly known as “twin…

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